New York Comic Con 2012: The Good

New York Comic Con 2012 has come and gone, and as always, it kept me busy and active throughout the four days that it took place. Come read my valiant tale, as I explain all of the good things about New York Comic Con 2012.

+ I didn’t get a headache!: It is a miracle. Generally, whenever I go to a convention that’s fairly sized and three days (AnimeNEXT, Anime Boston, past NYCC/NYAF trips), the next day I usually get a headache, and normally don’t feel like going anywhere the next day. That amazingly didn’t happen this time. I can only praise how I scheduled myself this time, as I avoided the internet for three days (using it on Sunday) and attempted to go to sleep early. If it wasn’t for them Yankee games, I might have had even better sleep and oh snap I should probably get to talking about the actual good stuff now

+ There’s always gonna be something to do: Even despite the lack of anime presence, I was able to find some things to do that made scheduling a lot easier for the weekend (Thursday didn’t have any panels of interest to me though). It also prevented me from missing out on a panel. In general though, I learned my lesson from last year’s con, where I got shut out of some panels–come early. But anyways, whether it is visiting the Artist Alley (which I did Saturday) to wondering around the Exhibitors Hall to going to a panel, you won’t be bored out of your mind. If you’re bored out of your mind, then…I don’t know why you bothered showing up to NYCC. There’s something for everyone. Mostly!

+ Speaking of panels…: The panels that I went to were fairly good. I basically went to all the publisher panels save Yen Press and Funimation (conflicted with Shonen Jump Panel and NIS America Panel), and was at the Yu Asakawa and Mangaka panels to name a few, and for the most part, they were pretty enjoyable. I will explain more in further detail in the publisher panels post and other panels post this week, but I basically got what I wanted out of the panels: getting information and not seeing anyone embarrass themselves because they don’t know what they’re talking about. I think. I most importantly saw some actual enthusiasm too, which you’d think is expected, but sometimes you don’t get that. I might be holding JManga’s panel as a example — oh, well I guess you know who I will probably praise in the publisher report. Oops!

+ Moving The IGN Theatre Entrance away from where the Food Court is: I didn’t bother eating at the food court this year, but if one ventured around there, they would have noted a lack of people squished together all the time. For people who have been going to NYCC for years, they probably welcomed the change. For a convention this size, more space to breathe is great, and with the IGN Theatre moved to a different location, it made things much easier for everyone. Probably.

+ Networking: Probably the biggest thing for me that took place over the weekend was talking to people (especially in the Industry). Thursday was essentially the big day since it was limited to only a few people. I did speak with just about every publisher — Ed Chavez from Vertical Inc, Ryan Phillips from NIS America (both people in the marketing department for their respective companies), to name a few — and even managed to talk to Sean Gaffney from A Case Suitable For Treatment (Manga Bookshelf Collective), Narutaki (Kate) from Reverse Thieves, and even Christopher MacDonald, the CEO of Anime News Network for a bit during the busy weekend. I also got a bit more insight about industry stuff from The Anime Network interview I did which will be up on Thursday, and while I couldn’t include everything I wanted, I hope you’ll gain a bit more knowledge anyways. In general, it’s fun to talk to the guys who bring you all the stuff you may or may not like and anime/manga bloggers. They’re approachable people, and while in general a con like NYCC is not the best to get to know them further, if you do see them, just say hi and things are cool. Probably.

+ Announcements: Well, I guess you can say this is a cop out since of course for a big convention you expect good announcements, and while not a whole bunch sent me into complete joy land, it was still pretty good announcements. That mostly pertains to the manga side of things, as some of the major publishers (Viz Media, Kodansha, JManga, etc) announced some interesting new properties for the states (Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration, Vinland Saga, Aoi Hana, to name a few). But the best announcement for me at New York Comic Con was Funimation’s announcement that they acquired the rights to Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children. Since I’m pretty keen on Summer Wars, and considering what I’ve been hearing others say about the film, I’ll be glad to check it out when it’s available in the states.

Overall, I was on my feet at NYCC and there were some good things that made the weekend fairly enjoyable. But of course, this was just the good side. I will have the bad of NYCC posted this week. It wasn’t all clean as one would hope it can be.